Known as A-Rod to fans and teammates, Alex Rodriguez plays third base for the New York Yankees. Born in New York City’s Washington Heights neighborhood, Rodriguez moved to the Dominican Republic at the age of four. However, the family soon returned to the US and settled in Miami. Soon after, is father abandoned Alex and his mother, moving to New Jersey.

In Miami Rodriguez would begin his baseball career playing for his high school team. It was here that Alex would go All-American his senior year and be the first high school player to ever to try out for Team America.

Upon finishing high school, Rodriguez signed a letter of intent to play for the baseball team at the University of Miami - but he decided to pursue a professional career in baseball instead, entering the amateur draft.

He was quickly picked up by the Seattle Mariners, where he played as the third 18 year old short stop since the turn of the century. His star was rising, but the season was cut short due to the Major League strike of 1994.

As a result, it wasn’t until 1996 that5 Rodriguez really came into his own. In this season, he batted a very impressive .358, scoring 36 home runs and 123 RBIs, the highest average for any right hand batter in the AL since Joe Di Maggio. This was also the 3rd highest batting average for a short stop in any league - Rodriguez would finish out the season with the Major League’s highest total of hits, runs, doubles and extra base hits, earning him the Major League Player of the Year title.

He would play with several more teams until in 2004 he signed with the New York Yankees. During his years with the Yankees, he would set more records of home runs; RBI’s and win Most Valuable Player in 2005 and again in 2007. Despite all his accomplishments, A-Rod would begin to receive criticism for being unable to perform well in clutch situations, that is under extreme pressure. Fans and sport writers alike would criticize his abilities. Much of this he simply takes in stride and has been quoted as saying, “I could care less. In my career, I’ve been hearing it for a long time. It will never stop until you win five or six World Series in a row, and hit a Joe Carter home run. I’ve done a lot of special things in this game, and for none of that to be considered clutch, it’s an injustice.” He must be doing something right however because in 2007 the Yankees and Rodriguez came to an agreement for a ten year contract at the tune of two hundred and seventy five million dollars and millions more if he breaks the home run record.

The player’s personal life has also been a topic of discussion, with A-Rod having been spotted in the company of another woman at a strip club (he and his wife are divorcing). There have also been rumors that he and the singer Madonna have had an affair, something supported by the singer’s divorce from husband Guy Ritchie.

Masters golf winners are very proud to hold the titles they do. This golf tournament is one of four major golf championships held in Augusta, Georgia at the Augusta National Golf club. This is a private golf club that is not open to the public.

This event is an official event which is part of the PGA Tour, the PGA European Tour and the Japan Golf Tour. The tournament is also known as the U.S. Masters and is by invitation only, being operated entirely by its host, the Augusta National Golf Club. The invitation only format of the tournament means that far fewer players participate than in the other major championship tournaments. The Masters is the first of the year\’s major tournaments and is held at the beginning of April each year.

The top prize awarded to Masters Golf Winners is the green jacket. While this jacket was once a subject of disdain because of its unusual color, it is now a much sought after prize. Since 1949, the jacket has been part of the victor\’s spoils; the winner of the tournament may keep and wear the jacket for a year before returning it to the Augusta National Golf Club. One of the traditions attached to the jacket is that the previous winner of the jacket helps the new champion into the jacket upon their winning the tournament.

There is also prize money awarded to Masters golf winners totaling $7.5 million. The top winner of the tournament is awarded $1.35 million and a Gold Medal. The player with the lowest score of the day receives a crystal vase. All players that perform a hole in one or a double eagle are awarded a large crystal bowl. Players that perform an eagle are given a set of crystal goblets. The winner of the par 3 competition the day before the tournament is also given a crystal bowl. The runner up wins a Silver Medal.

There are many Masters golf winners that have won the title of the tournament more than once in their career. Jack Nicklaus holds the most records and is regarded as the champion of the Masters with six tournament wins between 1963 and 1986. Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods are both tied with four wins of the Masters Tournament each. The first non-American to win the Masters in 1961 was Gary Player from South Africa.

Masters golf winners are among the best golfers in the world ” and since this tournament is open only to players who have been invited by the Augusta National Golf Club, even being asked to participate in this tournament is quite an honor in itself, whether or not the player goes home as one of the Masters golf winners. With the biggest names in the sport and a large amount of prize money as well as the famed green jacket at stake, fans watch this even closely every year.

Hockey was once one of the four major American sports. The big four were the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League. But yet, even as some in those group dominate the others (the NFL dominates all sports in terms of popularity), the NHL has not been able to really keep up with the others.

In fact, hockey is not truly considered to be in that big four grouping any longer. Of course, a more accurate description of the sports climate might show that NASCAR and MMA have joined the NFL, NBA and MLB in that top tier. Hockey however is on the outside looking in, no longer enjoying the popularity it once did.

How did this happen to the NHL? Was it the entire season that was lost to the lockout that did this? No, that wasn’t the reason, that lost year to the lockout was actually a symptom of the problem itself. The lockout was held because salaries were getting out of control and many franchises, outside of the most popular ones such as the New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings, simply could not afford to keep paying as much to their players as they were.

As any fan who lives in a city with a NHL franchise knows, declining ticket sales aren’t the cause of NHL franchises’ slumping revenues; games continue to be well attended and eagerly looked forward to. The reason for the lower revenue has to do with broadcast rights, a significant source of income for the NHL. Hockey is simply less popular as a televised sport than it once was.

While the lockout wasn’t in itself the cause of the NHL’s problems, it certainly didn’t help. When hockey returned to television in the 2005-2006 season, ESPN passed on the broadcast rights for NHL games. OLN (now known as Versus) picked up the broadcast rights - this network has a much smaller reach than ESPN and correspondingly shallower pockets. As a result, the NHL continues to have financial difficulties and many hockey fans are unable to receive NHL games at all, something that does not bode well for the NHL’s ability to recapture the attention of sports fans.

Adding to this problem is the fact that hockey isn’t the most captivating sport to watch on television. It is a fantastic sport to take in live. This helps explain why the sport is so popular in major metropolitan areas where there is a hockey team. These fans get to go to the games and take in the rabid culture. You can hear the turns and stops of the skating, you can feel the jarring checks as players hit the ice and fall into the boards. The speed and precise nature of the game comes out in a way that it simply cannot on television. Those people who never see a game in person therefore, may not even know what they are missing out on by not being a hockey fan.

Therefore the answer to the question is that no, hockey is no longer one of the major sports in this country. It has lost it’s place in that upper echelon, and is struggling for a strategy to get back. It needs to find a way to make its television games more exciting, while also getting those games aired in a spot where more people can view them. Until both of those happen it may be hard for the NHL to regain the spotlight it once had.

Kobe Bean Bryant, named after the Japanese beef, is the shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers. This American All-Star, along with Shaquille O’Neal led the team to three consecutive NBA Championships form 2000 to 2002, making both of them household names.

With the departure of O’Neal in 2003, Bryant became the team’s star player, leading the league in scoring in the 2005-2006 and 206-2007 seasons. He is an 11 time NBA All-Star, 2008’s NBA MVP and 3 time NBA Champion, along with having won a gold medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics as part of the US Olympic Men’s Basketball team.

Bryant has spent his entire life around the sport; his father was a player for the Philadelphia 76′ers and also coached the Los Angeles Sparks while Kobe was a child. Basketball almost lost Bryant to soccer when the Bryant family moved to Italy and he took an interest in soccer.

When his family returned to the US in 1991, Bryant began playing on his high school basketball team, where he was a star player. He decided against college despite his good academic record, instead entering the NBA at 17. His parents had to co-sign his contract with the Lakers, since he was still a minor; Bryant became the youngest person ever to start in an NBA game.

In his first year, he earned a spot on the NBA All Rookie second team and gained recognition by winning the 1997 Slam Dunk Contest. By 1998-99, he was a premiere guard in the league and being compared to basketball greats like Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson. In 1999, with new coach of the Lakers, Phil Jackson, he started his rise to the elite class as one of the best shooting guards in the league.

During the 2002-2003 season, Bryant averaged 30 points per game, posting 40 or more in nine games in a row! He was also voted to the All Defensive 1st Team and the All NBA team in this season. However, his reputation was badly tarnished before the following season due to his arrest for sexual assault.

In the 2003-2004 season, Bryant was criticized by many, including his coach who complained in writing that he was becoming uncoachable. He suffered another hit to his reputation with the Lakers first failure to make it to the NBA playoffs in more than ten years.

His next two seasons were not among his best; however, this was until breaking a Lakers record by scoring 81 points in a single game and amassing the second highest point total in the history of the NBA. His jersey became the top selling jersey in the US and China during the 2006-2007 season. He became the youngest player to ever reach a career total of 20,000 points in December 2007, when he was 29.

The 2008 Olympics made Bryant an international star. It may have been his first game as an Olympic athlete, but he was already far from a rookie when he won his first gold medal. He has set and broken many records in his career and despite his ups and downs, he may yet achieve more in the game.

US Tennis Open winners have been held up high since 1881. This tennis championship is one of the oldest in the world and the fourth and final tournament in the Grand Slam each year. This tournament takes place during the end of August and the beginning of September. There are five different event championships which include the men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, mixed doubles, wheelchair events, and even events for juniors and seniors.

The US Open is different from the other tournaments in the Grand Slam like the Wimbledon. The US Tennis Open winners are determined by the person that wins the final set tie breaks. In the other tournaments the winners are determined by whoever wins by two games starting at the fifth set for the men and the third set for the women.

Even though it does not draw the crowned heads that one may see at Wimbledon, this is a tournament with a lot of prestige attached and the event draws thousands of spectators from every part of the world as well as many locals. With more than $20 million in prize money awarded in this tournament, it’s easy to see why over 600 players compete in this tournament each year.

The US Open is held in New York City, at the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, home of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Unlike Wimbledon, the events are held on an acrylic court rather than grass.

Since there is more prize money to be won, many players aspire to compete in this tournament. There is a $1.5 million prize for the winners of the main events, with half that amount going to the runner up. Semifinalists are awarded $320,000, quarterfinalists half of this and so on. There are many prizes to be won even by those players who leave without a trophy.

US Open winners in doubles events also receive large cash prizes. Doubles winners split a total of $1.8 million. There is also half a million dollars in prize money to be won in the mixed doubles. The qualifying 128 draw events for both men and women pay up to one million - in total, there is over $20 million dollars in prize money to be won in this tournament.

With so much to be won and the prestige of competing in a Grand Slam tournament, professional tennis players are always interested in this tournament. There are prizes given to the winners in many different events, giving players a much better chance to go home with a prize than in other tournaments; this generates a lot of excitement among fans as well, which makes this tournament incredibly popular year after year.